


17 Year Old Genius with a Public Library Computer

by meils121



Category: Leverage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 14:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13101888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meils121/pseuds/meils121
Summary: Moreau is interested in recruiting a new hacker to his team.  It doesn't go quite as planned.





	17 Year Old Genius with a Public Library Computer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladyjax](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyjax/gifts).



            Moreau watches Eliot as the man leaves the room and hums thoughtfully to himself.  He always knew he’d see Spencer again.  But the man at his side - that was a surprise.  It had taken him a minute to place Alec Hardison.  It’s been several years, after all.  But there’s something about the young hacker that Moreau’s been unable to forget.

            “Sir?”  Evans asks.  “What should we do about Spencer?”

            Moreau turns.  “Nothing.”  He says.  “I want to see what he does.”

            Evans is too good to look surprised, but Moreau can tell he is anyways.  Nobody understood why he let Spencer walk away in the first place.  Letting him walk away a second time was unheard of.  But Moreau didn’t pay his men to ask questions.  He paid them to do as he said.  So Evans just nods and steps backwards.

            Moreau is still thinking of the hacker later that evening.  He’s sitting in his office, having just hung up the phone with a very worried president of San Lorenzo.  Boring stuff, really, but that’s the cost of running a country.  

            Hardison had been - hmm, fifteen maybe?  No, probably closer to seventeen.  The age when teenagers are deciding who they want to be.  And, well, Moreau had heard of the hacker before.  Very few people in his line of work hadn’t by that point.  Stealing from the Bank of Iceland was impressive, but Moreau knew the kid could do more.  And he needed someone like that working for him.

            He’d gone himself to offer Hardison the job.  His men could be a bit heavy-handed.  Moreau liked to think he had a bit more elegance and grace when it came to this sort of thing.  So while on a business trip in New York he took a little side trip out to Harlem.  The address he had ended up being an old brownstone.  A group of kids sat outside on the steps.  If Moreau had been a better man, he might have described it as sweet.  As it was, he stepped out of the car with a smile.  If this was how Hardison was living - well, it’d be easy to convince him to join Moreau.

            Only he didn’t get that far.  “Is Alec here?”  He asks the kids on the steps.  The younger ones just stared at him, but one of the older kids answered.

            “Who’s looking for him?”  

            Moreau knows all of these kids are foster kids, more suspicious by nature.  “I have a job offer for him.”

            The two oldest kids exchange a smile.  “Alec doesn’t need a job.”  The other one says.  “He’s good.”

            So the others know about Hardison’s extracurricular activities.  Interesting.  “I’d still like to talk to him.”

           “And I’d like it if a strange guy wasn’t hanging out around my nana’s house.”  The kid says.  

           Most people would end up dead if they said something like that to Moreau, but he just hums and turns back to his car.  

           He flies out of New York that night, but he promises himself he’s going to find a chance to talk with Alec Hardison.

           He next gets the chance three months later, when he’s in New York again.  This time, he has a connection at the CIA track Hardison’s location.  Moreau ends up, for the first time in his life, walking into a public library.  He’s beginning to doubt that all this effort is worth it - except he’s seen Hardison’s work.  He knows it’s worth it.

           He finally finds Hardison sitting at one of the shared computers, bent over the keyboard and typing furiously.  

           “Alec?  What kind of trouble are you getting into now?”  Moreau asks.  He has a fake Interpol badge in his pocket if he needs it, but he doesn’t think he will.  He’s intimidating enough without it.

           But the kid doesn’t even look up.  “I’m busy, bro.”  He says with the kind of disdain only teenagers can manage.

           Moreau frowns.  “I have a job offer for you.”

           “My brothers already told you, I don’t need a job.”  Hardison says.  That actually manages to take Moreau by surprise.  He hadn’t expected Hardison to put two and two together like that, especially if he’s not even looking up from the computer screen.  Moreau gets a slightly unsettling feeling that Hardison has been tracking him for a while now.  And that - that isn’t something Moreau particularly likes.  He always wants to be the one with the upper hand.

           “This isn’t your typical job.”  Moreau says smoothly.  “I can pay you quite a bit.  You can keep your grandmother well-cared for -”

           Hardison cuts him off.  “Don’t even think about using Nana to guilt-trip me.  The answer’s no.  I can make my own money, thanks.”  Without looking up, he waves one hand like he’s dismissing Moreau.  “I’m not interested.  Take the message and leave.”

           Moreau is close - dangerously close - to making sure Hardison doesn’t walk out of this library alive.  But he takes a deep breath and shrugs.  

           “Your loss.”  He says, and walks out of the library.  He hears a muttered “Whatever” behind him, and he decides then and there that this is the last time he tries to recruit a teenager.  They’re too moody.  Besides, he thinks, Hardison can’t be that smart if he won’t even consider an offer.  It’s the last he’ll think of Hardison, that’s for sure.

 


End file.
